Link 1: Future Ago
by rae-chick
Summary: Callie is an ordinary 15 year old girl, but when she finds an old story of hers, things go wrong. Callie is thrown from our world into Tortall, and finds herself as the heroine from her story - but in her story the heroine dies...
1. Prologue help, i can't spell it

a/n: my fan fiction. hope u lik! if u wanna, r/r plz, but I don't really care. thanx!!  
  
Disclaimer: Callie Talyssa James, her family and her friends and the story line are mine, the rest belong to Tamora Pierce  
  
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~ Screams rang out, echoing through the trees. It was only one teenage girl yelling, but it sounded as though twenty were nearby and terrified.  
  
.And he saw her, fading as though mist. Burned but brave, her sunny smile faintly appeared as she whispered "Goodbye" ~  
  
***  
  
I am doing my computer cleanout and I come across an old file - a Word document. Its title is strange, it's something I don't even remember writing. Although, it could be a couple of years old. My parents decree that I should clean out my computer's memory every two months or so, back up important stuff and delete the rest.  
  
So, of course, I do.  
  
Once-in-a-yelling-parent. Translation: about every two or three years.  
  
Reading it through, I roll my eyes; I have such a dramatic way of writing. God, it could be a soap opera with a bit more crying. I am tempted to just get rid of it, but something keeps my finger off the delete key.  
  
Who knows, it may come in handy.  
  
Though what for, I can't imagine. Maybe if I need a bit of creative writing for English or something, that's a good way to get out of writing it - use something old.  
  
It's very surprising, just how much junk I accumulate on my computer. Files and files, stuff from my friends, schoolwork. Most of it I just wipe without even bothering to read it.  
  
Until I come to a letter.  
  
A letter I never sent. A letter to my best friend, Jade. The reason I never sent it to begin with was I just couldn't be stuffed. It never was sent in the end, because she's gone.  
  
She died in a car accident.  
  
I hadn't spoken to her for a couple of years, after we went to different high schools and stuff. Then I found out. It is like an unending bad dream. One I can't wake up from. We'd been best friends since kindergarten or something, but then her parents sent her to a private school, while I went to the public. We began high school keeping in touch, but then, we just drifted apart.  
  
To me that makes it worse.  
  
Jade was like a sister to me, we were that close friends, we counted each other and our parents part of the family. My parents are taking it hard; they've become suffocatingly protective of me. Always worrying, where I am, who I'm with. Jade had died when her friend's car was hit by a drunken truck driver. Allyson died also. I slam the delete key, nearly going into tears at just the title.  
  
But I don't cry.  
  
I hate to cry, so I don't. I've trained myself never to show my emotion or to let it control what I do. I only smile. But even that make me feel vulnerable, like someone can hurt me with it. I am so worried about what people are going to do.  
  
What their reaction to me will be.  
  
I try to be perfect, so nothing about me will be wrong. Nothing will give someone a weapon against me. I score perfect marks on tests, make sure I'm popular, keep myself surrounded by people like a shield. I just keep my mouth shut in class, even when I know the answer.  
  
I can't bear to be wrong.  
  
My mind in a fog, I give up on the computer. I fall onto my bed and stare blindly around. An effort, my whole self feels like I'm under water, but I'm not soaking wet. I can hardly hear my mother calling my name; it's like a distant chant.  
  
"Callie. Callie. Callie."  
  
I try to answer, but she can't hear me. Her voice grows angrier, and harsher; I'm being disobedient.  
  
"Callie. Callie. Callie. Callie Talyssa James!"  
  
She's at my bedroom door now and her voice is starting to sound scared. I can't move, can't breathe, the fog is filling up my lungs.  
  
"Cal! Calsa! CALSA!!"  
  
She is yelling. Her voice breaks the fog as she puts a hand to my face. My paralysis ends and I moan. Now I ache so badly, it's as though I've pulled every muscle in my body. Again, I am nearly crying, I'm so frightened.  
  
What had happened, am I going mad, drowning in fog?  
  
Or is it just a dream, a nightmare with my eyes open?  
  
***  
  
I didn't then know what my story meant, or what would follow, or what I would find out about myself.  
  
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btw does any1 no the ages of the royal family and Alanna's family the year of Kel's crowning??? and where they got to??? thanx! 


	2. 1: First Meeting with a Spidren

Lianne backed into a tree, her dagger held at the ready. Her bow lay a bit further away, useless without any arrows. She attempted to still her harsh breathing, stay perfectly still, but her tense muscles refused to relax and stop quivering. She kept an open-eyed watch; not even daring to take her attention off the danger she knew was there to magically call for help.  
  
A bright flash briefly blinded Lianne, white light flooding her vision. It was followed by a sharp smash and an ear-piercing shriek. The scream echoed about the forest, sounding of panic, horror, shock and helplessness. When Lianne could make out what was happening, she jumped forwards.  
  
The spidrens Lianne had been fleeing had found her, drawn by the flash of light. The scream itself was still tearing from the throat of a girl Lianne could now see. The spidrens had ringed the girl, who looked to be Lianne's own age, if not younger. The smash had been from something glass; it had been dropped and had broken into jagged pieces about the feet of the girl. A glint next to them showed Lianne that the girl had been carrying a small knife, and she carried on her shoulders two lots of luggage.  
  
The spidrens closed in on the girl, who by this time had stopped screaming. Her eyelids were fluttering and her face dead pale. The luggage crashed to the ground, she made no move to grab it again. Lianne gave a yell, drawing the spidrens' attention. They recognized her as the dangerous one, her dagger obvious, and that she had already killed several of them before. Lianne focused and bit her lip, trying to keep her attention on all around her. She slashed out, but missed, the spidren had easily read her move.  
  
***  
  
Callie could not keep her mind in the world, blackness was colouring her vision, blotting out the terrible giant spider-things. She couldn't understand how she had gone from her nice, modern kitchen to the middle of a forest. When her sight snapped back into focus, Callie saw the girl, now circled by the spider-things. In her hand, she held a knife, her face was determined, but Callie could easily see she was going to lose that fight.  
  
Callie looked wildly about, looking for something that she could use as a weapon. Callie's mind was now clearer, she concentrated on one thing, so she wouldn't think about her terror, and scream again. Her throat still smarted from the other shriek. Help the girl find something to fight with help the girl fight with something help fight. Callie spotted glitters on the ground, reaching down; she grabbed the knife with one hand and a shard of glass with the other. The blade was just a small vegetable knife, and the glass was part of her plate, but they were both sharp.  
  
Drawing back her hand, she threw the glass shard as hard as her wobbly muscles would let her. The shard hit one of the spider-creatures on the head, but did hardly any damage, mostly bouncing off, but Callie saw with delight that a black fluid had begun to flow. The creature spun on her and reared up. Acting on instinct, Callie jumped sideways, giving a wince as she cut her bare feet on bit of glass.  
  
A thread of greyish, sticky looking stuff landed where Callie had been. Lianne, taking the opportunity, killed the lead spidren with her dagger, thanking the Great Lady that the girl had helped. Divided now between the two girls, but forming a barrier between them, the spidrens attacked. As they nearly reached the two girls, who both were just armed with a small knife, arrows began sprouting from them. All the remaining spidren and the surprised girls turned to face a mounted hunting party. The hunting party quickly dispatched of the spidrens. There wasn't actually as many as there seemed to have been, but there would have been still too many for the two girls.  
  
Callie collapsed upon the grass, retching, with out actually bringing any thing up. Lianne walked closer to her, noticing for the first time the girl's very peculiar attire. She wore a one sleeved bright yellow top, with a purple butterfly on the front, rough material blue breeches printed over with lighter, sort of faded little stars. They fitted snugly, but widened out from about her knees, so that at the bottom, they almost covered her feet, which were bare, and Lianne could see, scattered with tiny cuts. Her long, dark, but slightly auburn hair fell straight to about her elbows, but was threaded through with tiny plaits. Her unusual aqua eyes had golden flecks, and silver glinted on her upper eyelids, and on her lips. Her wrists had strange bracelets, and a pendent hung about her neck. The bags she had dropped were blue and green, and one had a picture of a dolphin.  
  
Callie was aware of being under serious inspection, but was undertaking one of her own. The girl was dressed in odd-looking riding-type clothes - a greenish, plain sort of rough-material shirt and brown pants, she had boots, or something like boots on. Her black hair was tied back in a braid, which was then wrapped in a sort of crown. Her greenish eyes were determined, and she wore no makeup or jewellery. In her hand, she still held the dagger, it's blade dark with the blood of the spider-things. Callie realised she still held her veggie knife and threw it from her as though it was hot.  
  
The two girls, unaware they were now surrounded by the hunting party, both smiled, they liked what they read of each other. Callie's smile was guarded, and still dark, but she who spoke first, her voice raspy and strained. "Who are you?" She spoke simply, but the words had a hysterical edge, the smile disappeared and the fearing look was back in her eyes.  
  
"Princess Lianne, thank you for saving my life. Who are you? How did you get here? Are you all right?" Lianne replied carefully, and glanced upwards to meet a face, appearing so similar to her own they could only be brother and sister. Callie was still wondering over Lianne's words and hadn't answered the questions. Princess? No one's a princess in Australia! At least, I haven't heard there to be one. She glanced up also and met Lianne's brother's gaze. She noticed they were siblings, both had black hair, but his eyes were sapphire blue.  
  
"Okay. 'Who am I?' Well I'm Callie. 'How did I get here?' 'Am I all right?' To both question that would be a resounding I DON'T KNOW! Where the hell am I?!?!?! How can you be a princess!?!?! There are no princesses in Australia. How did I get here?!?!? This sure ain't my kitchen!! Megs, Kenna, Madi and Ames are supposed to meet me, what are they gonna do wheni'mnottherethisishorriblewhatwerethosethingsdidyoubringmehere. WHAT. THE. HELL. IS. GOING. ON. HERE!!!!!!!!!" Callie's voice was hysterically high, and her eyes had rolled back in her head. Lianne dropped to her knees and slapped Callie sharply across her face. It cut off her shrieks but Callie then passed out of the grass.  
  
Lianne and her brother, whose name was Jasson, both quickly tested her with magic, she'd just passed out. "Probably from the shock." Jasson said. "We'd better take her the palace healers and Duke Baird anyway.  
  
Callie heard those words, but they were in the distance, and she had no wish to go to them. Something chimed in her memory, but she let the blackness swamp her.  
  
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a/n I'm working on Jasson being 15, Lianne being 14 and Liam being 17, Alianne/Alan being 15 and Thom being 18 if anyone thinks these are totally mucked up plz tell.  
  
Thanx to those who reviewed!! it wasn't supposed to come out all in a paragraph, there was enters in there! but I don't know what happened. 


	3. 2: Wishful Broken

Callie clung to the comforting darkness as long as she could, but she finally returned to the land of the awakes, though her eyes remained firmly shut.  
  
Her first thought was //God, I so have to go to the toilet.// But then she remembered her yesterday. Praying with every part of herself, something she had scoffed at in books (how could your liver or stomach pray?) but now she knew how, that it was nothing more than a really vivid, strangely painful dream.  
  
Cautiously opening her eyes, her need for the bathroom long since lost from thought, Callie was relieved to see nothing but her familiar room. The pale pink curtains, idly she wondered why she hadn't got rid of them yet, the boring white walls, her desk in the corner with its TV, and her plant in another corner. Her bright gold quilt and its swirling pattern, the few teddies on the shelf above her bed.  
  
But then a stranger walked into her room, followed by one who was still a stranger if not slightly familiar in face. Callie gave a strange sad sound as she came properly awake and her illusion of her bedroom faded away. She wasn't home, she was in a plain white room, lying in a strange bed.  
  
And that vaguely familiar face was the guy from the forest, the guy with the black hair and blue eyes. and a way good looking face, but Callie threw that thought away, pretty much like she threw the knife away - only in her head.  
  
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sorry this is way short. I'll try and get more later, it's holidays so I might be able to get stuff written, but don't hold me to that alright?  
  
bye!  
  
I don't own the place or the majority of the people, just callie, and the occasional other. and the plot. the rest are tamora pierce's 


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